Politics and policy
Members of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) put on protective gear at the
isolation ward of the Donka Hospital, on July 23, 2014 in Conakry,
Guinea. AFP PHOTO|CELLOU BINANI
By STEPHANIE NEBEHAY, Reuters
In Summary
- Sierra Leone declared a state of emergency and called in troops to quarantine Ebola victims on Thursday.
- The death toll from the worst-ever outbreak of the virus hit 729 of 1,323 people infected in West Africa.
The World Health Organisation is
launching a $100 million (KShs8.7 billion) response plan to combat the
"unprecedented" Ebola outbreak that has killed 729 people in West Africa
since February, the UN agency said on Thursday.
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WHO Director-General Margaret Chan will
meet in Conakry, Guinea on Friday with the presidents of affected West
African nations, it said in a statement.
"The scale of the Ebola outbreak,
and the persistent threat it poses, requires WHO and Guinea, Liberia
and Sierra Leone to take the response to a new level and this will
require increased resources, in-country medical expertise, regional
preparedness and coordination," said Chan.
The plan identifies the need for
"several hundred more personnel" to be deployed in affected countries to
ease the strain on overstretched treatment facilities, the WHO said.
Clinical doctors and nurses, epidemiologists, and logisticians are
urgently needed, it said in an appeal to donor countries.
Sierra Leone declared a state of
emergency and called in troops to quarantine Ebola victims on Thursday,
joining neighbouring Liberia in imposing tough controls as the death
toll from the worst-ever outbreak of the virus hit 729 in West Africa.
Some 1,323 people have been infected since it began.
"The plan sets out new needs to
respond to the outbreak across the countries and bring up the level of
preparedness in neighbouring countries," WHO spokesman Paul Garwood
said. "They need better information and infection-control measures."
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